TV amp; Movies Reviews

This post contains spoilers for Season Two of The Diplomat, which is now streaming on Netflix. Few shows in recent memory have as good a handle on what they are as The Diplomat. That’s particularly impressive when you consider that the series — starring Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, a …

Clint Eastwood — movie star, award-winning auteur, icon of stoic masculinity, man who occasionally talks to chairs — turned 94 this past May. It may be weird to mention this upfront, although talk of age, the ravages of time, and the art of knowing when to gracefully retire has been …

You probably know someone like David: early 40s, has a steady job (selling internet ads), loves his wife and toddler son. He’s on meds but still anxiety-ridden, somehow seems both highly observant and perpetually distracted. Takes the responsibility of adulthood seriously. Very seriously. Maybe you’re related to that person. Maybe …

When Billy Crystal regularly hosted the Academy Awards, he liked to begin the show with a montage where he was inserted into the nominated films. The 2000 opening leaned more on Hollywood history, with Crystal appearing in vintage films like The Graduate and Psycho. There were still jokes about that …

The Pope is dead. For years, his Holiness had helped to move the Catholic church toward modernity and serving its constituents in a manner befitting the 21st century. Now, however, “the throne of the Holy See is vacant,” and a group of high-ranking cardinals — some of whom called the …

In 1892, French soldiers looted a number of totems and treasures from the West African kingdom of Dahomey, considering these items the spoils of victory after winning the Second Franco-Dahomean War. For over a century, the items sat in French museums, watched over by French security guards and viewed primarily …

So there’s this alien symbiote, see, who makes its way to Earth and ends up being studied alongside several other specimens in a lab. A muckraking reporter named Eddie Brock is trying to expose the corporation that’s using human subjects to test what these extraterrestrials are capable of, and long …

In the opening scene of the third season of Somebody Somewhere, Bridget Everett’s character, Sam Miller, crouches on the floor of a bar, talking baby-talk to a dog. When she gets up she shows a patron a picture of a dog she’s dreaming about adopting. Then, she leaves, singing in …

It’s one of the stranger footnotes in the annals of American true crime: In 1978, a decade into cross-country reign of terror and still a year away from finally being caught, serial killer Rodney Alcala was a contestant on The Dating Game. “Bachelor No. 3” managed to impress the episode’s …

Every horror movie franchise operates according to its own set of rules, so in the spirit of public service, we’ll offer a refresher on the parameters of filmmaker Parker Finn’s 2022 directorial debut Smile. There’s a supernatural parasite who feeds on trauma and attaches itself to an unwilling host. Side …